Monday, August 19, 2013

Mark This Book Monday: Elegy by Tara Hudson!

Elegy is the final book in the Hereafter trilogy and with it Amelia's struggle with her after life, her relationship with Joshua and the fight with the forces of Darkness all clashes into a final battle.

I can't really talk about Elegy and keep it spoiler free for the previous books, but as always I will try my best to keep it spoiler-free for the book itself.

Elegy starts pretty much where Arise left us, with a Risen and very shaken Amelia, trying to figure out how she can defeat the forces of darkness and try to keep all her loved ones safe. She's already had to face the fact that keeping secrets from her loved ones and Joshua is not the solution, and that she can't face the demons from the brigde on her own. After getting an ultimatum to give herself in or what those around her die, she decides to take action and bring the fight to the demons.

Joshua and Amelia keep on facing dificulties on their relationship, because even if now that she's Risen Amelia can be seen and can interact more normally with Joshua's family, they lost the intimacy of touch, and all the "fight the demons or they'll kill everyone you care for" is putting a lot of strain to their relationship, but they do manage to get through all the highs and lows with working on their issues and talking about them, and that's a lesson we should all take to heart: talk about your issues with your partner, don't expect others to guess and magically fix things!

Amelia has to make some slightly unexpected alliances and not all plans go as planned, but they're ready to give a fight to the devils on the bridge, and quite unexpectedly when things go awry, Amelia gets contacted and gets some explanation from the side of Light about what's going on, and she gets offered a way out. But that is not good enough for Amelia, since she needs to do what she feels is right and she has to fight the demons and save those inprisoned there, and she's not getting any help from the Light side in there, and I found that very disappointing, it seems that in the world Tara created the evil guys are more proactive than the good ones, and neither of both sides care enough about errant ghosts.

The ending was quite action packed, a little bit unexpected and quite heartbreaking even if there's also a note of hope.

There's a definitive character growth and progression in Amelia and Joshua, and also in Jillian, cause she was quite irritating in Arise, but she's much more than an angsty brat in Elegy, she turns out to be quite of a hero in the end.

I was a bit scared to start the book, cause I feared how it would end, but it was a fast read, with a tight plot, many questions answered and what might not be a very cheerful ending but one that does make sense for the story and is true to the characters.